Zynga Game Cards arrive in the Middle East

Zynga Game Cards
Now, the only people Zynga hasn't hit with its plastic cards are the pygmies of Australia. (Never say never, I guess.) The creator of FarmVille has entered 16 countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa through Gate2Play, an "end-to-end payment and value-added services platform based in Amman, Jordan," Gate2Play said in a statement. In other words, it handles payment of a number of clients' games through plastic cards and digital PIN numbers for paying players.

The cards will come available in $2, $5 and $10 increments, giving players more choices in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the UAE, and Yemen. Yep, I think that's about all of 'em. However, no mentions were made of localization, which strikes us as odd.

It hasn't been until recent that Middle Eastern social games have hit the radar, but they've been growing rapidly. Not to mention they're already doing amazing things like oh, I don't know, attempting to end the influence of extremism in the region? While this could lead to localization of Zynga games a' la the recent Zynga City (or Chinese CityVille), it more importantly points to the possibility of the Middle East becoming an important player in social games in general. Hey, if we're not going to get diversity in social game genres anytime soon, I'll gladly take cultural diversity.